Drumming
by Azreael
Summary: Arthur is...the Master! Instead of becoming Professor Yana to escape the Time War, the Master used the Chameleon Arch to become Arthur. Every time things get stressful Arthur hears the drums. Arthur/Eames in the beginning then later Arthur!Master/Doctor.
1. Chapter 1

This is a fill for a prompt on the inception kink meme. The original prompt can be found here:

http : / / inception - kink . livejournal . com / 20092 . html?thread=48178556#t48178556

Summary: Arthur is...the Master! Instead of becoming Professor Yana to escape the Time War, the Master used the Chameleon Arch to become Arthur. Every time things get stressful (i.e. in the elevator for the kick in zero-G), Arthur hears the drums.

This will be Arthur/Eames in the beginning, then Arthur!Master/Doctor.

Rating may change to M.

Disclaimer: I don't own Inception or Doctor Who or any of their wonderful characters.

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><p>The drumming. He first heard it when he was 17 and ran away from home. It wasn't a particularly warm spring night but it wasn't warm either. It was the anniversary of his mother's death. He never met her. His stepfather was drinking, again. In his drunken stupor, he decided that it would be fun to use Arthur as a punching bag. "Beat some sense into that scrawny kid" he had said. He didn't like it very much when Arthur decided to fight back. He chased him out of the house with a baseball bat threating to throw Arthur into a home. So I guess it wasn't really running away, but he was going to leave anyways.<p>

He had just lain down on a bench, hoping to maybe get an ounce of sleep. He lived in the city so it wasn't very hard to find one. Despite that fact that he was now reduced to sleeping on a bench he was very rich, or his family had been. Before being chased out he had managed to grab a few of the credit cards. His stepfather wouldn't notice any missing money, he was too drunk most of the time to notice anything, and it was Arthur's money anyways.

Being in a high end of the city it was very unusual to see someone sleeping on a bench. Some rich man or woman didn't really fancy looking out their window and seeing a teenager sleeping on a bench, they called the cops. The last thing that Arthur wanted to do was get mixed up with the cops.

Arthur got strait A's in all of his honors and AP classes, but he never really managed to stay on the right side of the law. He is good at gathering information, almost too good. Still hasn't managed to cover his tracks properly. He got caught a few times hacking into government materials, stealing military secrets, and random tidbits of information. They were never able to prove anything so he was never convicted. Now was not the time to start.

He ran. He ran faster than he ever has before. He ran right into central park. The cop quickly gave up on chasing him in the car and quickly started on foot. Arthur had expected one of the usual, fat, lackeys, but no; this one was fit, very fit. He was quickly on Arthur's tail. Being the younger one he had more of the advantage but not by much. That was when he first heard it.

It hit him all the sudden like a tidal wave. He fell to the ground. It was there. He could hear it. It was so loud.

"Make it stop! Please make it stop!" he yelled to no one in particular.

The cop grabbed his arm. "Son, I am afraid that you are going to have to come with me."

Arthur looked up to him with pleading eyes. "Please make it stop! Please!"

The cop seemed somewhat bewildered but still firm. "Make what stop son? I think you should stop talking such nonsense and make this easy for both of us and come with my quietly and calmly."

"Don't you hear it?" Arthur asked incredulously.

"Hear what?"

"The drumming." Arthur told him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Okay son. You are going to come with me now have a little talk about doing drugs." The cop told him, pulling Arthur to his feet. "The rich ones can have anything they want yet they still use drugs, idiots" he muttered under his breath.

At that moment a young man, no older than 20, chose to run up behind the cop and bash him on the head with a metal bar. Later Arthur would learn that this British man's name was Eames. Arthur stared at him in shock.

"Looked like you could use a little help mate. You seem a little small and rich to be getting mixed up in a mess with the cops. Anyways, we should probably run."

Arthur was only able to nod and run after the mysterious stranger. When they got about a mile away, into the security of a small local pub, Arthur realized the drumming was gone. When Eames asked what had happened because it didn't look like a normal arrest Arthur just told him he got in trouble for running away from home. Eames laughed and asked why a rich boy would want to run away from home. Arthur had no answer for him.

He never told anyone about the drumming again.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is the next chapter

Disclaimer: See chapter 1

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><p>This time it was on a job. It wasn't a particularly complex job but it wasn't easy either. At least it wasn't supposed to be hard.<p>

This was his seventh job and counting. All seven of them he has worked with Eames as a forger. Well, Eames wouldn't let him work if he wasn't on the job. Eames was the one who introduced Arthur to the world of dream sharing. Eames had told him the it revolutionized theft and corporate espionage, and you made a great deal of money too. The money wasn't what got him hooked on the idea, he certainly didn't need it, it was the research, and the sheer power of dreaming that had him on board.

He wasn't always so sure of himself though. After he woke up from his first dream by being torn apart by Eames' projections he refused to go under again and had trouble sleeping for weeks. You have to remember though, back then the dream technology was not as advanced as it is now. The dreams weren't as vivid and the Somnacin compound they used was far from stable or safe. The PASIV device was in it's primal stages. It was Eames who eventually convinced him to return. He gave the dream machine another chance.

Their mission on this seventh job was to go into the mind of the CEO of Jude & Sons. Everyone in the business knew that Marcus Jude didn't always use legal business strategies but his wife also suspected him of being unfaithful. They were there to figure out who the woman was.

There were four under on their team for this mission. The fifth was watching them in reality. Arthur was acting as point and Eames as extractor. They were scouring Marcus' office while the other two led the projections on a false trail, trying to buy them some more time.

The office was one of those big offices on the top floor of the building with many windows letting in light but there was one door and no windows that connected into the building. He couldn't have people looking in while conducting his "business".

This was helpful but also particularly detrimental to Arthur and Eames' work depending on how you look at it. On one hand the projections can't see them but then, they also can't see the projections.

It went wrong right before they figured out who it was. All the sudden shots were being fired into the room. These were not normal projections.

There it was, the drumming. It was back though it had never really left. The drumming was always there as a presence in the back of his mind, beating.

Arthur pushed the drumming to the back of his mind and dreamt up a machine gun. "You get the information. I will try to hold off the projections for as long as I can."

Eames just nodded before turning back to the computer to finish his work, faster than he had been trying before. The other two men were most likely dead so it was all up to them.

"I found it," he yelled to Arthur over the sound of guns, "It wasn't a woman. It was his wife's supposedly dead brother," Eames chuckled, "give me a few minutes and I can get the rest of the information as to where they have been meeting and how he faked his own death."

"We don't have a few minutes Eames." Arthur growled.

He was right. They didn't have a few minuets. Within a few seconds Arthur was shot. He fell to the ground clutching his stomach.

Eames saw what happened and quickly ran over to him, knelt next to him, and pulled his head into his lap. He dreamt up a gun and eliminated all immediate danger.

"What the hell are you doing?" Arthur ground out, "get the fucking information. You don't need to-" he was cut off as he choked up blood.

"Arthur," Eames said in a soft voice. He knew that this was going to be Arthur's first time dying of a bullet wound in a dream and he also knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant. He knew Arthur, he showed him this world, so he knew that when Arthur woke up he was going to have another emotional mark that wasn't there before and it was Eames' fault. The least he could do was be there for him through out the process.

The Eames was shot in the chest and collapsed on top of Arthur's struggling to breath, trying to make sure Arthur died first so he wouldn't be left alone.

Now that it was over it was back. The drumming was brought to the forefront of his mind. The four beats, always there, never faltering.

The drumming mixed with the pain of his wound was too much to handle. He brought his hands to the sides of his head and screamed. "Make it stop. Please make it stop!" he begged.

"I-i-its. O-kay," Eames managed, "i-it will b-b-be over so-oon."

"No it won't. It never-" he choked up more blood onto Eames, "It never goes away! The drumming is always there beating. Always there! "

That was the last thing that was said before projections burst into the room and riddling their bodies with bullets, killing them both instantaneously.

****Drumming****

They both woke up gasping for breath. The other two men already had them selves under control and started packing up, covering their tracks.

"What the hell happened down there?" the fifth man asked while packing up the PASIV, "this was supposed to be an in-and-out job."

"Those were not normal projections," the second team member added, "what the hell were you doing in there that made them go so out of control? I have never seen anything like that before."

"I wasn't doing anything that I haven't done before," Eames ran his fingers through his hair, "what was different."

"Militarization." Arthur said, taking them all by surprise. He was now much more under control of his emotions, the drumming less predominant in his mind, giving him room to think.

All four of the men stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Arthur. He took this as a queue to continue. "I saw something somewhere a while ago about some men paying extractors to protect their mind against extraction, which is also known as militarizing the subconscious. As far as I know it isn't well known that this can be done. There is only one extractor who has been able to militarize someone's mind, Dom Cobb. I would bet my money that Jude used him to protect him mind. He was expecting this."

"But we still got the information, right?" the first team member asked.

Arthur looked down guiltily, "Well I was-"

Eames cut him off, purposely not looking at him. "He was having an affair but not with a woman but with his wife's supposedly dead brother Roland Smith. He faked his death by taking an already dead body and put it into his house then set it on fire. The body was burned beyond recognition and he was missing so the authorities assumed that it was him in the house. They ruled the fire as an accident, case closed.

"No one bothered to investigate it, the perfect cover up. He has been staying in one of Jude's flats in London where he visits Smith frequently during the day and on most weekends using his private jet."

Arthur started at Eames open mouthed, still sitting in the chair in Jude's office where they had set themselves up. He thought that he had messed up. Guess not.

The men finished cleaning up while Arthur watched them. He was still new enough to the business where not much besides the research was expected of him.

They were all finished. "Okay," the first team member started, "we are going to split up and your payment will be wired into your accounts by the end of tomorrow. The mark will be under for the next thirty minutes' giving us enough time to get away."

Eames and Arthur didn't split up. They got into separate cars and drove in two different directions but met up a few blocks later.

Arthur ditched his car and jumped in Eames'. Eames just sat there.

"Eames, we need to go before anyone figures out that something is wrong."

He turned to face Arthur. "No. Tell me what the hell happened down there when you were shot."

"I was shot for the first time in my life and over reacted to the pain. I am over it. If I have to work in this business I have to get used to this." He shrugged it off.

"No Arthur the drumming. What is the drumming?" he persisted.

Just the mere mention of the drumming brought it back to the front of his mind. "Nothing. I had a head ache."

"Arthur if you have something to tell me-"

"It was nothing Eames!"

Eames didn't respond but pressed the petal to the metal and drove away. They rode the whole way in silence.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry it has been so long. I am writing multiple fanfictions at a time and i had MCAS this week (for those of you who don't live in Massachusetts you have to pass your tenth grade MCAS to graduate) so i got a little side tracked.**

**I just want to explain something to you about this story. I don't really have the time to go through every time that Arthur hears the drumming up until he finds out that he is the Master because frankly that would get boring. I am just focusing on major developments in their lives and relationships. **

**The next chapter is going to be a lot longer because a lot is going to happen *hint* *hint* so it might be a while for me to write all of it but i promise that it will be good though it may kill me writing it *hint* *hint*.**

**I hope you like this chapter because it is all the happy you are going to be getting for a few chapters.**

**Disclaimer: See first chapter.**

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><p>The second time he didn't freak out like the first time. It wasn't expected but it didn't take over him like the first time. This was the fifth or sixth time. He has started to learn to live around it.<p>

He and Eames are flat-mates now. With some of Arthur's money they bought a small apartment in the part of town that Arthur wasn't quite used to.

They weren't together, no matter what other people may think. Arthur knew about Eames' "adventures". He wasn't exactly discreet but then again Eames isn't a very discreet kind of man. He was kind enough not to bring any of his conquests back home, except for the time that he did.

**Inception**

Arthur was sitting on the couch going over some notes for their current job. This wasn't a very major job. They were going into the mind of a relatively unknown drug dealer. He supposedly killed a man and their job was to find out where that man's body was. This man wasn't very well known so it wasn't a high profile job. Arthur was just doing some research on the workings of this particular dealer when the door slammed open.

"What the hell are you doing over there?" Arthur called. Eames didn't usually slam the door unless he was angry or drunk and when he was either he was yelled uncomprehend able nonsense. Eames was silent tonight.

He turned around to see what Eames was doing and was very surprised at what he saw. Eames was against the wall by a very blonde man.

The man was maybe in his early twenties, a few years older than Arthur. His blonde, flowing, hair was brushed to the left side of his head. He had on a half buttoned blue and white flannel and a pair of slacks.

He was completely surprised and taken aback by the jealousy that he found flowing through his veins. He and Eames weren't like that, yet it was there anyways. _Arthur, get a grip. You are a criminal on a job; you don't have time or the luxury of having a relationship, especially not with Eames. Eames._

He knew he should look away, give them their privacy, but he couldn't. This was his house, he paid for it, and he could do what he wanted. This was Eames though, he really should turn away. The irrational part of him wanted to be the blonde man. He wanted to be in the oblivion of a carefree relationship. He wanted to be able to let go. It didn't have to be Eames but… Eames.

Then he noticed it. The blonde man had a gun in the back of his pants under his shirt and he was pulling it out. Eames was a little too preoccupied to notice. The man had just finished pulling it out and pointed it about Eames' head.

Arthur froze for another millisecond before grabbing Eames' gun off of the coffee table next to him and fired. The man dropped down on top of Eames with a bullet in the middle of his head. That was the first time Arthur ever killed a man.

"What the bloody hell was that?" yelled Eames, pushing the blonde man's body off of him and onto their wood floor. When he glared at Arthur, the gun was still trained at the spot where the blonde man had been standing just seconds before.

Drumming. The drumming was back.

'You gonna shoot every bloody man I try to shag?" Eames yelled at the still frozen Arthur, "What the hell is your problem. No we have to deal with this and I am not going down with you. You will be taking the blame for this."

Arthur was still frozen but his eyes flashed down to the gun that was in the dead blonde man's hand. Eames' eyes followed Arthur's down to the gun. His eyes widened in recognition.

"You just saved my life." Eames said slowly, still trying to process what was going on but Arthur was finished. He was finally able to move from where he was standing and removing all traces that they had ever been there. They had paid their rent in cash so nothing here could be traced back to them.

"He was going to kill me and you saved me." Eames said again, still standing in the same place where he had just been kissing the blonde man. "You saved my life."

"Yeah I did," Arthur responded hurriedly, "and unless you want us both to go to jail for murder and many other illegal activities I suggest you get ready to leave," Eames just stood there still shocked, "now preferably."

That snapped Eames out of his revere. He stood still for another second before jumping into action, helping Arthur. Arthur on the other hand fell down to the ground clutching his head.

Eames ran over to Arthur and knelt down next to him, "Arthur what's wrong?" he asked in a worried voice, "we have to go now. Someone would have heard the shot and called the police. We weren't exactly inconspicuous when we came in. Must have passed bout half a dozen people."

"I-I-its nothing," Arthur stammered, "just a headache."

They could both hear a police siren in the distance. This was not a common occurrence and they had never thought much of it before. They weren't exactly in the best part of town. They both knew whom the siren was coming for this time.

"We have to go now Arthur," Eames told him in a quiet but urgent voice.

Arthur knew that Eames was right. They only had a few minutes left at most to get as far away as they could and hew was just wasting precious seconds. He tried to push the drumming to the back of his head as best as he could. His life depended on it.

Eames had finished stuffing everything important into their go bag and was running out the door. Arthur followed him just steps behind, slamming the door closed. Eames' sleek black car was already out front. Arthur jumped into the passenger seat. Eames threw the bag into the back then slammed on the gas pedal.

Although their need to get out of the immediate area was very prominent in both of their minds, Eames drove just above speed limit not to draw attention to them selves. There were many other drivers go faster than they were so they were less likely to be noticed.

They drove for a few hours until they were a safe distance from the city. They pulled into an old ratty hotel. They just left the car there, it was bought using offshore accounts and almost impossible to trace back to them. They were safe, for now.

Eames quickly checked them in with the sleep clerk. He and Arthur pulled all of their things out of the car and brought them to the room, up the stairs and three doors to the left.

Now that the immediate danger was gone the drumming was very dulled. It has never come with such a headache before and this worried Arthur. He thought they had been getting better…

Once the door silently clicked closed Arthur found himself being pinned up against the wall.

"Arthur," Eames said in a very serious tone. He meant business, "what the hell was that back there? Don't tell me it was just another headache. Headaches don't happen that way."

Arthur couldn't respond right away. Their close proximity and Eames' mint breath on his face was making it very hard for him to concentrate on the question.

"I think it has to do with the day that we met," Eames stated, "I think that this was the same thing that happened three years ago."

If at all possible Eames was even closer to Arthur but they still weren't touching.

"I get headaches sometimes," Arthur managed.

"Now Arthur, what did I tell you about using that excuse on me?" Eames whispered in his ear, "Are you doing drugs? Do you have a tumor? Is there something going on? I need to know these things Arthur if I am going to protect you!"

The tone of intense worry in Eames' voice tugged at Arthur's heart.

"I am fine Eames," Arthur could see that Eames didn't believe him written all over his face, "I am fine."

Eames only shook his head. "I am fine." Arthur tried to reinforce the thought even though he was anything but.

Eames said nothing but press their lips together at last for a slow, calm kiss.

Arthur's eyes widened in surprised. Eames seemed a little surprised at his own actions too and pulled away but not going very far.

"Arthur i-" Eames started but he didn't have a chance to finish. Arthur was already pulling Eames face back down to his for a more passionate kiss. Eames quickly responded by kissing him back with just as much passion if not more.

Arthur tried to push the drumming to the back of his head as if his life depended on it. This was the moment he didn't want ruined. This was his moment of oblivion, his moment with Eames without the rest of the world butting in. He wanted to remember this moment because it may be the only chance he gets.

After a few short minutes they both pulled away, the need for air outweighed the need for passion. They were both breathing heavily. Eames rested his forehead on Arthur's.

"Arthur." Eames breathed.

"Eames." Arthur responded.

"Arthur I didn't know. Are you sure about this? I have always been shit at relationships."

"Who said I wanted a relationship?" Arthur question? He tried pushing their lips together again but Eames held him back.

"Arthur, do you I am stupid? I know you better than that. I have never seen you have just a casual shag. I have know you for three years and we share an apartment! I thought you thought more of me than that. I know I was never very discreet about what I did-" Eames continued to rambled but Arthur interrupted him.

"Eames, that isn't" Eames interrupted him right back.

"Arthur, it is okay if that is what you want from me but that isn't what I want from you. Why do you think I haven't made a move on you yet? I didn't think that you would want to. I fucked around trying to get over the stupid little crush but nothing . front of that cop. I just felt like I had to protect you, even then."

He rushed to get everything out before Arthur had a chance to say anything, "Why do you think I helped you? I had never done anything like that before and had never planned too and I probably wont do that for anyone else ever again. If you really don't want a relationship than I am going to have to go."

He moved to walk out the door but Arthur stepped on front of him, successfully blocking his path.

"I guess we have a little misunderstanding then Mr. Eames. I always thought that it was you who didn't want the commitment. Ever since you saved me I have felt _something_. I always thought it would ruin things if you ever found out."

Eames searched his face for any sign of a lie. When he didn't find any, he brought his lips down on Arthur's once again.

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><p><strong>Please please please review :)<strong>


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